Structural Racism Is Not An Exemption From Accountability
Paige Nong William Lopez Paul Fleming Riana Elyse Anderson Melissa Creary
MAY 27, 2021 DOI: 10.1377/forefront.20210526.665071
In February 2021, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) tweeted, “No physician is racist, so how can there be structural racism in health care?” The tweet was designed to promote a podcast that was ostensibly focused on structural racism yet did not include experts on the topic. The subsequent uproar highlighted the harm caused by deep intentional ignorance of the term structural racism, defined in the American Journal of Public Health as “policies and practices…that confer advantages on people considered White and ideologies that maintain these advantages, while simultaneously oppressing other racialized groups.”
Among the many problems with JAMA’s tweet and podcast was the speakers’ attempt to assuage discomfort with the possibility of their own racism by focusing instead on structural racism. That is, these powerful individuals explicitly presented structural racism as less closely related to personal culpability. Rather than engaging with both types of racism, the speakers chose to deflect attention to structural issues as if they as individuals played no role within those structures.
This rhetorical move represents a concerning example of how powerful individuals and institutions can misuse the term structural racism to obscure their own roles in racist systems and interactions.
Over the past year, many leaders and organizations have declared that racism is a public health crisis and acknowledged that structural racism is a serious problem. However, a critical question remains: How do we ensure that the concept of structural racism is not appropriated to serve the interests of the powerful in avoiding accountability for their roles in racism?
More...https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20210526.665071/full/
= new reply since forum marked as read